A Country Camera 1844 - 1914 by Gordon Winter

A Country Camera 1844 - 1914 by Gordon Winter
Originally published 1966 reprinted by Penguin 1975

The earlier companion piece to Winter's A Cockney Camera, this wonderful collection is slightly less well organised than the latter volume, and sadly there seem to be fewer names attached to the folks in the photos. That aside however, this is another gem of a collection with some quite magnificent portraits and location shots. The cover, for example, is given over to a most impressive shot taken in 1857 of one Robert Morvinson who was born when the United States were still a British Colony!

Accompanying the photos is Winter's warm and informative text, giving information about the social context of the times, the people who were either in the photo or responsible for it being taken, and often some entertaining stories of how some of the sharpest early shots were located - including several that had been used as cloches in someone's vegetable garden!

Sometimes it is the fascinating locations shots that really grip the reader - such as the stunning street panorama of Castle Street, Farnham in the 1880s - other times it is the portraits that tell their stories of hardship, elegance, and bygone fashions which draw you in. But there's always something new to be found in the collection each time you browse through.

Covering all sorts of topics, such as old Crafts and Trades, village occasions, people at work and lesiure, hiring fairs, country 'sports', various forms of transport and all sorts of buildings from churches to pubs, this book will offer insights into the lives of our rural forbears in many different ways, and really bring home some of the occasions and feelings that we can only otherwise read about.

A Cockney Camera by Gordon Winter

A Cockney Camera by Gordon Winter
Published by Penguin - first published 1971 as 'Past Positive' 128pp
ISBN 0140040110

Although called A Cockney Camera, this marvellous book really covers the whole of London, featuring photos and commentary on a range of subjects in late Victorian / early 20 th Century life in the capital.

Split neatly into sections covering such topics as Domestic Life, Rural Survivals, The Day's Work, The Church, Shops and Markets, The Pub, various types of transport, and leisure activities what is particularly pleasing is the way that unlike many photographic collections, Wilson annotates each picture with lengthy notes explaining the location, the date and most importantly for family historians - he names as many of the people in the photos as he can!

Each set of photos is accompanied by a commentary on the social life that is being considered, and whilst it is clear that Wilson certainly knows his Social History, he writes in an informal and engable fashion - his first sentence provides a suitable example: 'To enjoy life in London in the ninteenth century, the first and most important step was to choose the right parents.' To illustrate his underlying theme of the severe differentials between the wealthy and the poor, Wilson admits to focussing on the extremes in his selection of shots, many of which he has sourced from private collections.

With photographs illustrating early trades, various locations and buildings, social life in action, and some smashing portraits, this book will help anyone with Victorian ancestors from the metropolis garner a real feel of what their everyday life would have been like, and bring to vivid life the sights they would have been familiar with.

Although like many books I will be reviewing, this book is long out of print, it is easily available as a second hand item online, and whilst checking for its availability this morning, I noticed there is a companion volume called 'A Country Camera 1844-1914' which I've just ordered for £3.95 inc p&p! Hopefully a review of that item will be ready in a week or so's time.